I log on to my computer and open my calendar. A rainbow of back-to-back meetings fills the screen. There is barely time to grab coffee, let alone lunch. My stomach knots. My smoke starts puffing out of my ears like a Looney Tunes character. Then I hear a voice from across the hall, “Ready for a good day?” It’s my mentee, the first meeting of my day. My dread disappears.
The day turns out to be one of the easiest I’ve had in weeks. Not because my calendar magically cleared. It didn’t. I had almost no space for deep work. But every meeting gave me something I enjoy: solving a problem, helping someone get unstuck, drafting a new idea, or figuring out why something wasn’t working.
I didn’t recover between meetings. I recovered through them. That changed how I think about a packed calendar. We spend a lot of time asking how to protect our energy. Maybe we should also ask what creates it.
The point: Energy doesn’t always come from doing less
We’ve been told to protect our energy. Guard it. Block recovery time between meetings like we’re rationing something scarce. That’s good practice on many days. But there’s another approach: design your day to include more of the things that give you energy into the day, and less of the things that drain it.
A full calendar isn’t automatically an energy problem. The better question is what your calendar is asking you to do.
The surprising research: Your usual “breaks” may not recharge you
A 2011 study of 214 employees, mostly knowledge workers, examined the strategies people use to manage their energy during the workday. The researchers looked at both traditional micro-breaks and activities people do while working. The most common strategies included checking email, switching tasks, making a to-do list, drinking water, having a snack, and grabbing a caffeinated drink.
But the strategies people used most often generally weren’t associated with higher vitality. Several were actually associated with greater fatigue. The researchers also found that popular recovery activities such as walking, getting fresh air, and napping weren’t significantly related to vitality in this study. So what was associated with higher vitality?
Learning something new. Focusing on work that brings joy. Helping a colleague. Showing gratitude. Seeking feedback. Reflecting on how your work makes a difference. Thinking about the meaning of your work. These aren’t passive activities. They involve learning, relationships, purpose, or meaningful work. The work itself was giving some of it back.
“Just plain energy is a neglected dimension of leadership. It is a form of power available to anyone in any circumstances.” — Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor
The catch: Not all “busy” is created equal
Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy made a related case in their work on energy management: time is finite, while energy can be renewed. Their approach emphasizes balancing periods of focused effort with deliberate renewal.
My experience adds another dimension. Sometimes renewal doesn’t require stepping away from work. Sometimes the right work is the renewal. Three hours of difficult conversations can leave you depleted. Three hours that mix a challenging decision, a problem you’re good at solving, and a meaningful conversation with someone you care about can feel completely different. Same clock. Different experience. That distinction matters because we often treat “busy” as a single category. It isn’t.
What this means for your calendar
Before you decide that your calendar is too full, look at the shape of the work inside it. Ask yourself:
- Am I producing, connecting, or both? A day packed with decisions, deliverables, and problem-solving demands a different kind of energy than a day that also includes meaningful conversations, collaboration, and helping other people.
- Am I stacking the same kind of hard? Three difficult conversations in a row can create a very different energy curve than three meetings with different demands. If possible, vary the load. Follow a high-stakes conversation with something you’re good at. Break up intense decision-making with collaboration. Put meaningful connection into the mix.
- Which meetings consistently give me energy? Don’t just identify the meetings you dread. Notice the ones you leave feeling sharper, more connected, or more motivated. Those meetings are data. They tell you something about the work that fits your strengths, values, and interests.
Your next move: Design for energy, not just space
The next time your calendar looks impossible, don’t immediately start deleting meetings. First, scan it differently. Look for the energy drains. Then look for the energy sources.
Can you reduce work that consistently leaves you depleted? Can you create more opportunities to solve problems you enjoy, help people, learn something new, or connect with colleagues? Can you stop stacking the same type of difficult work back-to-back?
The goal isn’t to fill every minute. It’s to design your minutes so the work itself helps sustain you. Download the rom-eisenhower-matrix-template-1.pdf
The bottom line
A packed calendar isn’t necessarily a bad calendar. A full day can still leave you energized. The trick is knowing the difference between busy work that spends your energy and meaningful work that helps replenish it.
That’s a different way to think about Return on Minute: not simply getting more out of every minute, but building a workday that gives you something back, too.
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